CRO Race. Yevgeniy Gidich takes shortened stage 3 after phenomenal team’s work
Young Kazakh rider Yevgeniy Gidich won the third stage of the CRO Race, shortened due to extreme weather conditions. After a perfect lead-out done by Davide Villella, Gidich launched his sprint with 200 meters to go, taking his second seasonal victory after success at the Asian Cycling Championships.
- We had a good plan for this stage and in the end of the day everything worked out perfectly. Indeed, it was a hard day with all this rain, wind, cold, stage neutralization and restart. But we managed to pass it through without big troubles thanks to a great work of the sports directors and all team’s staff. After the stage has restarted, we always stayed up there in front, controlling the situation and following all attacks. After the last climb I managed to come back to the leading group with Davide Villella and Andrey Zeits. The guys provided me a great support inside the last few kilometers, while Davide did a fantastic job, leading me out into the final kilometer. It was an ideal lead-out, so I just started from his wheel and did my best in sprint. I am happy and proud with this win. Finally, I’ve got it! I want to thank all teammates for this tough but amazing day, it is our common success! – said Yevgeniy Gidich.
Stage 3 took its start in Okrug, but after 20 km the jury decided to stop the race due to dangerous wind conditions. The stage has been neutralized and restarted later from a point with 43 km to the finish line in Makarska.
- The weather conditions were very dangerous, so the jury did a right decision to neutralize the race and to move it in another place. We brought the riders at the new start point, quickly organized a 40-50-minute warm up on Tacx trainers, so our riders were ready for a new start. We knew this stage could suit us with a hilly profile and a climb not far from the finish, so we were motivated to do something today. In the end of the day, the team did a very good race, the guys were always in front, trying to attack and to follow the attacks of the rivals. On the descent a group of leaders went away with Yevgeniy Gidich, Davide Villella and Andrey Zeits among them. So, Villella did a perfect lead-out for Yevgeniy and he won in a very nice way! We are happy to take another beautiful victory in this end of the season and to bring it to all our sponsors, especially our main partner Samruk-Kazyna, – added Sergey Yakovlev, sports director of Astana Pro Team.
Thanks to today’s success Yevgeniy Gidich moved into the lead in the general classification of the CRO Race, having 6 seconds on Alex Edmonson and 10 seconds on Grega Bole. Andrey Zeits and Davide Villella are 10th and 11th, respectively. Astana is leading the team’s classification of the race.
Stage 4 of the CRO Race will be held tomorrow: 155 km from Starigrad to Gorski Kotar.
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